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The My Lai massacre of Vietnamese civilians by US soldiers in 1968 was an almost unimaginably savage, shocking crime.

Savage, because of who its victims were:

The official memorial in the village of My Lai lists 504 killed, "182 women, of whom 17 were pregnant, and 173 children, of whom 56 were of infant age. Sixty of the men were over 60 years old…"

Shocking, because it was committed in our name, by ordinary people, just like us.

What would you have done if you were a solider at My Lai?

Some of us, no doubt, have the evil in our hearts, or the arrogance, or the fear, or whatever it takes to order such a crime, as Lt. William Calley did in 1968. He is the only person to have been convicted of a crime there.

Many more of us are simply the tools of people like Calley.

Like Paul Meadlo, who was just being a good solider:

I was just following the orders of my officer like any good soldier—what's the good of having officers if they've nobody to obey them?

Or like Varnado Simpson, who just went along with what everyone else was doing:

I cut their throats, cut off their hands, cut out their tongues, scalped them. I did it. A lot of people were doing it and I just followed. I just lost all sense of direction."

Almost 80 otherwise ordinary Americans participated in the murders, but some did not.

Like Robert Maples, who refused a direct order to shoot.

Like Michael Bernhardt, who "refused to take part, but feels guilty because 'I just stood back and let it happen.'"

Too many of us are like Maples and Bernhardt. People like us would like to think we are not the tools of the Lt. Calleys of this world. But we are. It's not enough to refuse to take part in wrongdoing if we also refuse to do nothing to stop it.

Unlike 24-year-old Hugh Thompson.

Thompson witnessed the horror that day from the safe distance of a helicopter. He could have decided not to get involved and kept flying. But instead, he acted:

Hugh Thompson, by now almost frantic, saw bodies in the ditch, including a few people who were still alive. He landed his helicopter and told Calley to hold his men there while he evacuated the civilians. Thompson told his helicopter crew chief to 'open up on the Americans' if they fired at the civilians. He put himself between Calley's men and the Vietnamese. When a rescue helicopter landed, Thompson had the nine civilians, including five children, flown to the nearest army hospital. Later, Thompson was to land again and rescue a baby still clinging to her dead mother.

Thompson and his crew stopped the slaughter. Here is his account.

For his courage, he was awarded the prestigious Soldier's Medal. But not until 30 years after the event. In between, he was rewarded differently:

But Mr Thompson was shunned for years by fellow soldiers, received death threats, and was once told by a congressman that he was the only American who should be punished over My Lai.

Hugh Thompson died this week of cancer at age 62. He was something that the rest of us will never be — a true hero.

In fact, it's because of the rest of us that horrors like this are allowed to happen.